CHAR-KOOSTA Newspaper of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation i
|™TuMM^UMBER26 THE BUTTERCUP MONTH APRIL 30, 1985 |
'Chances are 50-50 that Job Corps will survive' says congressman
of the members of the House of Representatives believe in the program, he said, thinking it a worthwhile investment of taxpayers' money. Various audits have estimated that for every $1.00 spent to educate and employ the disadvantaged youths who make up Job Corps' enrollment, between $1.16 and $1.48 is eventually returned to the nation's economy. Thaf s a better percentage of return than putting money in a savings account, Williams said Tm only getting 8% from the bank on my money -- where do I sign up to make 16%?" he joked
What's the return on the local level, he asked, adding that he knew Job Corps meant 600 jobs and an $8 million payroll for the state of Montana
One man answered that America has less skilled craftsmen than it used to. Job Corps is trying to reverse that trend
Kicking Horse's current director Virgil Clairmont said the schcx)l employs 65 Reservation residents, which translates into an annual payroll of $1.7 million.
Clair Krebsbach, speaking for the Poison Chamber of Commerce, said they once figured that Kicking Horse contributed $1.25 million to Poison alone, counting the purchase of supplies and the dollar value of community improvement projects there.
Williams also learned that the center Ls serving 247 Indian students right now, even though its capacity is 224. They come from reservations all over America, KllIC administrative assistant Lettie Neuman told him. She related how she (Concludes on page two)
If the President were to receive several hundred letters next week asking him to save the Job Corps training program, he might do it
That's what western district congressman Pat Williams, on the Reservation during a break in the action in Washington, D.C., told a small group
The name Char-Koosta is derived from Chief Charlo's and Chief Koostatah's names. They were the Tribes' last traditional chiefs._
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of people April 10 at the Kicking Horse Job Corps Center south of Ronaa
President Reagan evidently thought well of the program during his first four years in office, because it was one of the few programs to get annual increases in its budget to help it keep pace with inflation, former Kicking Horse director Joe Dupuis once said.
Why the change of heart after the last election? According to a Washington Post news analysis writer, "Political pressure to cut the deficit has virtually obscured the rationale behind a long list of domestic programs, even those that President Reagan has commended"
The Post said Job Corps was first targetted for extinction early in 1982 because one of the top men in charge of the federal government's budget David A Stockman, didn't think the program was worth the expense ~ even though a long-range study of it said it "was a resounding success in putting people to work and keeping them out of jail and off the welfare rolls. Its economic benefits for society.. .'are greater than its costs'", to cjuote the study and The Post
Three separate reviews of that study upheld its findings, and Job Corps received a temporary reprieve
Nevertheless, the President's proposed FY-86 budget includes no money for any of the nation's Job Corps centers. His hope is that the program will begin to phase out this summer.
Congressman Williams told the group at Kicking Horse that a lot of people in D.C. are angry alx>ut the proposal Most